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THE CONFERENCE of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHETI) has thanked the government for restoring the scrapped nursing trainee allowances.

In 2014, the government of former President John Mahama cancelled the payment of all training allowances, including that of nursing trainees.

The scrapping of the allowances was met with grave disapproval, and became a key weapon of the Akufo-Addo 2016 campaign.

Speaking at the launch of the restoration of the policy yesterday in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo regional capital, the President of COHHETI, Josephine Ansu-Gyeabour, extolled the government for upholding its campaign pledge.

“Clearly, it will ensure that financial hardships on parents or guardians, the students as well as school administrators, are considerably reduced,” she said excitedly.

She, however, urged the government to ensure that the restoration covers “all the basic health training institutions” across the country, saying, “we believe that you have initiated [the process] and you will surely accomplish that which you have begun.”

She expressed the hope that the government will continuously resource the health training institutions to achieve their mandate.

Mrs Ansu-Gyeabour further used the occasion to admonish students on the need to take their studies seriously. She told them that the best way they could express gratitude to the president was to “set high academic and moral objectives for yourselves and work hard to pass all your examinations at the first sitting and come out as a well-trained, qualified and committed healthcare personnel that Ghana can be proud of.”

The Health Minister, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said human resource for health development remains one of the critical action areas for his Ministry and that it has become more paramount due to the country’s resolve to achieve the targets set for the Sustainable Development Goals.

“It is, therefore, good judgment that under the visionary and selfless leadership of President Akufo-Addo, the nurse and midwife trainee allowance which was cancelled in 2014 by the National Democratic Congress government is being restored by the New Patriotic Party,” he remarked at the restoration launch.

According to him, 58,000 health trainees in all trainee institutions had been budgeted for at GH¢ 400.00 per month for 10 months in an academic year.

He further noted that adequate measures had been put in place to ensure sustainability of the payment, explaining that an electronic payment mechanism had been laid out for “convenience and accountability.”

Enthused by the restoration of the allowances some of the students praised the President for being truthful.